In March 1985, following the fall of a military junta, Argentina began navigating a fragile democracy under Raúl Alfonsín. The investigations into thousands of forced disappearances during the Dirty War surfaced in the government report, Nunca Más, which gained considerable popularity. Despite initial efforts to prosecute junta leaders, Alfonsín's administration faced challenges, leading to laws that hindered further prosecutions out of fear of coups. The struggle with historical remembrance continued over decades, marked by amnesties, trials, and memorialization groups like Memoria Abierta, indicating ongoing efforts to address past injustices.
In March 1985, I was likely one of the first American tourists to visit Argentina after a military junta relinquished power. Raúl Alfonsín, a human-rights lawyer, was leading the country's first democratically elected government since the early 1970s.
The so-called Dirty War, a campaign of kidnapping, torture, rape, and murder that resulted in as many as 30,000 extrajudicial deaths, left lasting scars.
An Argentinian alliance of human-rights organizations dedicated to remembrance and justice calls itself Memoria Abierta ('Open Memory'), suggesting a task that remains perpetually unfinished.
Haley Cohen Gilliland encapsulates Argentina's complex dynamic of confronting its past, illustrating its relevance in global contexts of violence and trauma.
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